Minnesota State Winner

Lydia Froemming
Grove City, MN
Home School
12th Grade

Walking down the streets of any small American town you would, no doubt, run into a lot of "average" American citizens. However, the truth is Americans aren't an "average". You can't average out bravery, courage, or a love of truth, liberty, and family; those are all things that true Americans possess. Americanism is more than a nationality; it is a state of mind and a way of life; most importantly perhaps, it is what one believes.

It was just another ordinary day for another ordinary American guy, and then it was a turning point in history, a day that made a hero and left a nation in tears. Todd Beamer and the rest of the passengers on that American airlines flight defined true Americanism on September 11th 2001. On that day in only a few minutes they chose to go from being American citizen to American soldier -- defender of life and liberty, even though it cost their lives. That is what it means to be an "American."

One man stood and surveyed the smoking, chaotic battle field, all around seemed to be enemy troops, nowhere in sight were reinforcements, yet he had been told to hold his position, and hold it he would! Regardless of the risk to himself, he stood and fought beside his brave and gallant soldiers, and when they got tired, worn, and beaten back by enemy fire, all they had to do was look and see their brave commander still standing tall and fighting like an immovable "Stone wall" to find the courage to fight on and prevail. Many say that Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and his brave brigade turned the tide at the battle of Bull Run, why? Because like the true American he was, he stood his ground, fought and ultimately died for what he believed to be right and true. He was more than a great commander or a great man; he was and always will be a great "American".

It was hot and humid, the men amassed in the sultry, steaming room were tired and physically drained from the huge amount of mental strain they were under; and yet among them were those who could see beyond this crowded room full of steaming men and conflicting ideas, men who had a dream of all that this country could be and would one day become. It was not in that room, but rather in the hearts of the men who met there, that the greatest nation to ever grace the face of the earth was born. They may have drafted the Constitution in Philadelphia for the first time on paper, but it was dreamt and carved in the hearts and minds of many great men long before that historic day. It was, rather, in Philadelphia that some of the greatest "Americans" of all time met, not only to define what America would become as a nation but what she would foster as a people.

An American is more than a person born and bred in the United States, an American, in the truest sense of the word, is the one who will live, dream, fight, and die for and with his country; knowing that the greatest privilege available to mankind is to be known as an "American."